John H. Thomas, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Fob James, et al., Defendants-appellants.lincoln Heard, et al., Plaintiffs-appellees, v. Joe Oliver, Warden, Defendant-appellant.george Edward Cowsen, Plaintiff-appellee, v. Robert G. Britton, et al., Defendants-appellants.carl Hall, Etc., Plaintiff-appellee, v. Joe Oliver, et al., Defendants-appellants, 661 F.2d 67 (5th Cir. 1981)

Plaintiffs-appellees are six inmates at Holman Prison, a state facility in southern Alabama.¹  They originally filed four separate civil actions against Alabama state officials pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and charged that several Holman regulations and security practices violated their constitutional rights. Their claims were consolidated and referred to a United States Magistrate pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(b) (1) (B). An evidentiary hearing was held at the chapel of an adjacent prison facility, and each plaintiff offered testimony and other evidence in support of his case. The relevant evidence presented at this hearing is brief. Holman Prison maintains a "visitor and correspondence" list for each inmate on which a prisoner may place the names of up to seven family members and one friend. Only the eight persons named on this list may visit the prisoner, send money to the prisoner, and receive telephone calls from the prisoner. The list is somewhat misnamed for it does not prohibit normal correspondence between a prisoner and anyone on "the outside." Based on all evidence presented at the hearing, the magistrate concluded that the eight person limitation on sources of money was an arbitrary interference with a prisoner's ability to exercise his First Amendment rights. Accordingly, the magistrate recommended that the district court enjoin the defendants from arbitrarily limiting the number of persons who may send money to a prisoner, and for the same reason enjoin the defendants from using a combined visitor, telephone, and money order list. The magistrate's recommendation was adopted and ordered by the district court, and the defendants now appeal. After careful review and consideration of the record,²  we conclude, sua sponte, that the lower court did not have jurisdiction to adjudicate this claim.³ 

In haste to correct what it perceived as an arbitrary regulation, the court below failed to recognize that this particular case is not justiciable. Article III of the Constitution restricts federal court jurisdiction to questions arising from a "case or controversy." In other words, to seek relief in federal court a plaintiff must show that he suffers from a threatened or actual injury caused by the allegedly illegal actions of the defendant. Laird v. Tatum, 408 U.S. 1, 92 S. Ct. 2318, 33 L. Ed. 2d 154 (1972); Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 95 S. Ct. 2197, 45 L. Ed. 2d 343 (1975); Smith v. Price, 616 F.2d 1371 (5th Cir. 1980). The magistrate in this case premised his recommendation upon the injury to a prisoner's First Amendment rights caused by limited access to money, however the record is void of any evidence which establishes a threatened or actual injury to the rights of these plaintiffs. None of the prisoners testified or offered proof that the money order restriction has interferred with their First Amendment rights. On the contrary, the testimony of the prisoners indicates that they were able to correspond frequently. There is no evidence that insufficient funds inhibited their desire to correspond, to obtain printed materials, or to exercise their religion.⁴  Likewise, there is nothing in the record to indicate that the relief sought by the plaintiffs would enhance their enjoyment of these rights.⁵  See Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. at 505-06, 95 S. Ct. at 2208-09. Therefore, the plaintiffs lacked standing to make this claim, and we vacate this portion of the district court's order and remand with instructions to dismiss.⁶ 

VACATED and REMANDED with instructions to DISMISS.